Requip

I just got a prescription for Requip. I think I have restless legs and this might be preventing me from sleeping more than an hour or two a night. I was wondering if Requip has helped anyone sleep better and if there are any dangerous side affects.

Welcome to the message board, newname.

There's a cpaptalk member who probably has the most practical experience with a sleep disorder called Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD), which is akin in some ways to Restless Leg Syndrome. They aren't the same, but may be similar. Her nickname is kteague. Perhaps she'll notice your topic and come into it to offer you help.

You'd need a PSG (polysomnogram) "sleep study" to determine if your RLS is showing up as PLMD during sleep. If you have insurance and can get your doctor to refer you for a sleep study, that would probably be a good idea.

I have RLS and PLMS. Requip makes all the difference between legs jerking around, keeping me awake all night, and being able to sleep through the night. I think I may still have a few leg movements during the night, but I'm not aware of any arousals. IMO Requip is definitely worth a try.

Jim

Severeena, 15 yrs on Requip? I didn't realize it's been around that long. Looks like you're the queen bee of experience, though I'm sure it's a distinction you'd rather not have earned. While I've been symptomatic for many years, I've been diagnosed and treated the last 10. I'm now on Requip, after having started on Sinement then on Mirapex. These meds are known for losing effectiveness or even causing augmentation over time. You haven't had that experience?

Newname, as much as I don't want to take these meds, there's little I wouldn't do to prevent living in the torment I knew when untreated. I have had to switch meds due to side effects or reduced effectiveness. I have fewer side effects on Requip than the others. My movements still aren't fully controlled, but they are tolerable. Based on my experience, I would recommend taking some time, maybe even weeks, before increasing doses. My sleep doc increased my dose 2x then told me to just stay at that level for a while. I would have sworn it wasn't going to help, but at some point it did.The goal is maximum effectiveness at the lowest dose. Gives you more leeway as time passes and may buy more time of usefulness.
Also, the lower the dose the less likely to develop the reported addictive behaviors toward gambling, food, shopping, or sex. The web is full of sad stories of lives ruined before finding out the behaviors where induced by meds. Fortunately reducing the dose seems to resolve those symptoms.

I have some nausea with Requip, helps me to take it with a bit of food. It does seem that eating a full meal too late interferes with the med's absorption, as the movements are worse on those nights. If you try the Requip for a while and decide to not continue, you can always go back off of it, just please follow the warnings to wean off and not stop abruptly. Also worthy of mentioning is that a check of your ferritin level (storage iron) might reveal it to be on the lower side of normal. It is recommended those with these movement issues keep theirs higher side in the range. We have one forum member who actually gets infusions periodically to keep her iron up, and her RLS responds to the the infusions.

The way I see it, sleep is so important to our health and well being, treating whatever is hindering it is not elective. How we treat it is, but we gotta sleep! Hope you find relief soon.

Kathy